Should I even bother with Stanford

IsoDidact
Tue, 08 Aug 2017 17:09:51 +0000

@lookingforward Before you further attack my “understanding”, yes, I do “comprehend the immense competition from kids with high grades, high rigor, and top scores all around” and that “too many applicants will be top performers at tough high schools.”

I, in fact, come from a very competitive high school with high performers. I am also aware of the type of students who get into these schools every year from my school (not that this knowledge helps the OP in any way).

I can only speak from my own experience and what I have gathered over the course of talking to many people in college admissions. The matter of the fact is that students aren’t required to submit AP Exam scores in their college application. There isn’t even an option to send an official AP score report (to my knowledge). Most colleges put little attention to those exam scores in the admissions process. What I was trying to say with my example with C’s and 3’s is that a student’s performance in class is what is evaluated, to a much higher degree than the AP Exam score.

The reasoning behind this is that every school is different, and every high school has different AP Courses, to varying levels of competency in preparing students for the AP Exam. Student’s aren’t penalized for being in an AP Course at their high school that doesn’t adequately prepare them to get easy 5’s. Instead, they are evaluated based upon how they utilized the resources they had (thus GPA, grades, and transcript). This is the best indicator of whether or not they will be successful in college. At my school on average 50% of students in AP courses get 5’s, and 30% get 4s. Since the AP classes at my hs are open enrollment (no restrictions on who can take what), this speaks to the quality of teachers, students, and courses here. But the overwhelming majority of high schools aren’t like this.

As I have said before, “Of course, an A+ with a 5 is the best situation.”

Also, I am well aware that many high schools don’t rank. I come from a high school that doesn’t rank. (btw, just because a school doesn’t publically rank students doesn’t mean there isn’t an “internal” ranking in the system.) I only brought up ranking because it is beneficial to the OP to keep in mind the position in his class he’s at. Even though there is no ranking, he should be able to guage himself in comparison to his peers in a rough estimate manner.

Again as I have posted before, we have no idea how his transcript compares to his peers. A grade of B in your mind may be very subpar, but what if it was the third highest grade in that class? We have no idea how his school grades, and to what degree of grade inflation exists without ranking/percentile information. And as you have said, schools are looking for top performers; it is impossible to measure this without ranking or a rough percentile.

Many students may have a unique story that sets them apart. If the OP has a compelling story to tell, perhaps about his identity of being black and asian, he will have a fair shot. Plus, the OP is a minority student so he will get a considerable boost with that. He should also emphasize his experience in STEM and his passion for it.

The OP’s question is whether he should even apply to Stanford or Duke, especially early. My previous advice still stands. If he thinks he can utilize his first semester senior year well to boost his application in terms of grades or awards or etc, then he should apply regular. If not, apply early and hope for the best. Of course, the OP should think about his dream school, and not just about “strategy.”

lookingforward, I think you completely misread my previous post. I, in NO way, am suggesting that the OP should not care about grades and scores because low scores are “ok.” I was simply offering advice based on his current situation.